Roaming Alone

When roaming Ethernet access became available to all Harvard undergraduates at the start of the year, University techies heralded the change as revolutionary.

But five months after the College delivered on its long-time promise to let students plug their computers into almost any Ethernet jack on campus, most agree that the new system isn't getting much use.

"Most students aren't taking advantage of roaming Ethernet yet," says Paul A. Gusmorino '02, formerly a co-chair of the Undergraduate Council's subcommittee that dealt with roaming Ethernet.

Administrators are hesitant to say definitively how many students are using the new technology until they have the results of the upcoming Undergraduate Computer Survey, but they acknowledge that they haven't noticed a massive number of users roaming around campus.

"I don't know that I really know that much about how much the students are using it," says Leverett House Master and technology guru Howard Georgi '67-'68. "I find it very convenient."

Part of the reason for the lackluster usage, says Harvard's coordinator for residential computing Kevin S. Davis '98, is that outside of dorm rooms, there just aren't many other places for students to roam.

Although students can connect to the Harvard network from any jack in their Houses, there are only a handful of roaming jacks in Lamont Library, and none in classrooms or popular study places such as Loker Commons or House dining halls.

Davis says plans are in the works to wire a variety of additional public spaces, including Loker and Widener Library.

Director of Harvard Arts and Sciences Computing Services (HASCS) Franklin M. Steen admits that roaming Ethernet capability may not be the most sexy change Harvard could make, but says ultimately, Harvard's network will be at the top of its game.

"It's nerdy--people are very reluctant to bring laptops to class," he says. But HASCS has confidence that eventually everyone will be doing it.

"[Roaming Ethernet] is something that is just a minor convenience," Georgi says, "but it'll become more important as we get more things wired."

Low Cost, High Reward?

Despite infrequent use of the roaming capabilities so far, all undergraduates with an Ethernet connection--even those who can't tell roaming Ethernet from roaming buffalo--have reaped the benefits of the system change.

The change forced HASCS to redesign its net-connect utility, the program by which students register their computers and network connections when they get to campus. In the past, when students were assigned to specific data jacks, it took a day or two for their applications to be processed.

With the new roaming Ethernet program, students are on the network in an hour or two.

HASCS officials admit that the improvement was long overdue.

Steen says HASCS was wrong to assume that it was no big deal for students to wait for their connection.

"It's really not," he says. "You want to get registered right away."

Within the Houses and first-year dorms, at least, Davis says he suspects there is plenty of roaming going on when students want to relocate their computers within their suite. If suite-mates decide to swap rooms mid-way through the year, for example, they no longer need to wait a day or two to reconnect to the network.

And while students may not appreciate or even notice these types of side benefits to roaming, HASCS contends that they are significant, especially given that roaming Ethernet is largely a side benefit in itself.

According to Davis, roaming is just part of a larger system overhaul--a three-year upgrade from a shared access network system based on hubs to a switch network.

In the old system, packets of data were gathered in hubs in places like House basements. That information was then broadcast to all the computers on the network--and most of those computers simply ignored the data.

The hub system faced serious security concerns because of its vulnerability to "packet-sniffing," a practice by which hackers can illegally pick up data not intended for them.

With the new system, all users have their own bandwidth on which to transport information, and switches are used to send data directly to its intended recipient.

Switches, Davis says, are far more expensive than hubs, and when the change is complete, it will have cost Harvard millions of dollars.

But they are also more efficient and stable--and a system of switches enables the College to put roaming Ethernet into place at a low additional cost.

"The switches allow roaming, but roaming doesn't drive the switch deployments," Davis says.

In other words, the ongoing change to switches would have been made even if roaming weren't an issue, making roaming Ethernet something like icing on HASCS' cake.

"It's a free tangential benefit--or close to free," Davis says.

What's Next?

Davis says HASCS has been "very pleased" with how well the 24 roaming Ethernet jacks in Lamont have worked so far.

Still, student computer users in Lamont say they are split on their usefulness.

Some, like Jennifer E. Philbrick '04, say they like being able to hook up their personal computers to the Internet while in the library.

"Part of the reason I don't go to Widener is that it's not hooked up," says Alejandro B. Fernandez '04.

Others say they know the jacks are there but don't plan on using them anytime soon.

"I'm trying to get away from my Ethernet connection," says Isaac S. Nakhimovsky '01.

And some students point out that that for the sizeable group of students with desktop computers, roaming in public spaces like Lamont is a non-issue.

Steen says that although plans are being made to expand the roaming network on campus, many spots still won't accommodate roaming. As a result, wiring dorm rooms has been the College's first priority.

Steen says the massive renovation of Widener will include the installation of about 1,000 roaming-friendly data jacks in the stacks.

But this will probably not be done until Lamont and the Cabot Science Library have been fully wired.

And then there's the spread of roaming capabilities into other public spaces. Davis cites Loker Commons, the Barker Center and Boylston Hall as possibilities for HASCS to consider.

Wiring House dining halls and other libraries is also in the works, Steen says.

"We would like to put jacks in the dining halls," Steen says. "I'm not aware that we've done it yet."

Leverett's Georgi says that although his House's dining hall is known as a popular study spot, he has not heard many students clamoring for data jacks.

"But we still think it's a good idea," Georgi says.

Wiring in Houses will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, according to Dean Harry R. Lewis '68.

"If a master wants roving Ethernet in the House dining hall, that's fine," Lewis writes in an e-mail message. "If the House decides it would rather not, then that's fine with me too."

Most seem to agree that this planned expansion of the roaming system to more and more campus locations will increase the volume of student roaming.

But Gusmorino has his doubts.

"I don't think you're going to see anything more than minimal use of roaming Ethernet until they have wireless Ethernet," he says.

Wireless Ethernet--in which users access the network via an "air port"--is much more convenient for users and is cheaper to put in place than roaming, Gusmorino says.

According to Davis, the total physical cost of a single roaming Ethernet jack is about $300 to $400.

Wireless deployments, Davis says, are probably the main area of technology in which Harvard is behind other colleges.

"It's something we are looking at," says Davis, who maintains that, overall, Harvard's network is currently about "two to three years ahead of the pack."

But wireless is not in HASCS' immediate plans.

"You probably won't see wireless in student dorms," Davis says--arguing that what's already there is good enough.

So HASCS is counting on roaming Ethernet to be the foundation of its network for some time to come.

"I have yet to hear of a school that provides the amount of bandwidth to each student [that Harvard does]," he says.